1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink cartridge having a storage medium capable of storing information about an ink cartridge and an ink-jet type printing apparatus capable of preventing erroneous installation of an ink cartridge. The invention relates to an ink cartridge change control scheme using cartridge information from a storage medium provided on an ink cartridge.
2. Background Art
An ink-jet type printing apparatus has an ink-jet type printing head, which is supplied with ink from an ink cartridge, and a paper feeder, which moves printing paper relative to the printing head. The apparatus prints by discharging ink droplets on the printing paper while moving the printing head based on print data.
Further, a printing head capable of discharging ink of, for example, black, yellow, cyan and magenta is mounted on a carriage. This permits text printing with the black ink and full color printing by changing the discharge ratio of the individual inks. The ink cartridge that feeds ink to the printing head is mounted on, for example, the carriage in a detachable manner.
Recently, demand for higher printing quality has increased, and various inks have been provided to meet the demand. When various inks are provided, there is a possibility that a cartridge retaining the wrong kind of ink will be incorrectly installed. When a cartridge for yellow ink is attached to a holder where a cartridge for black ink, for example, has been attached, the colors will mix, which will significantly degrade the printing quality. In the worst case, the different inks may react with each other and solidify. In most of such cases, recovery of the printing functions becomes impossible.
Various solutions to this problem have been suggested, such as formation of a pattern for preventing erroneous insertion on the case of each ink cartridge by means of, for example, undulation. However, mechanical formation of patterns, which physically differ from one another, to prevent incorrect cartridge installation, on the cases of the individual ink cartridges not only increases the cost of production but also creates problems when recycling the cartridges. Further, since the patterns for preventing erroneous insertion are limited, if the number of types of ink continues to increase, there will not be enough patterns.
Depending on the situation, ink that has been in stock over a long period of time and is beyond its expiration date may be used, and this problem cannot be avoided by conventional cartridges and printing apparatuses. Further, when photo-ink is to be used in place of normal ink, for example, it is desirable to install a photo-ink cartridge after the normal ink is discharged completely from the ink flow passage in the printing head.
In an existing printing apparatus, however, when an ink cartridge is installed, a hollow ink feeding needle located on the printing apparatus is immediately connected to the ink feeding port of the cartridge. It is therefore difficult to discharge the ink that exists in the ink flow passage.
To prevent vaporization of ink solvent, the cartridge ink feeding port is sealed with an ink protection film at the time of shipment by the maker, and the entire cartridge is packaged under reduced pressure in packaging material.
When a cartridge is attached to a cartridge holder of a printing apparatus, the ink feeding needles provided on the cartridge holder side break the ink protection film, and the ink feeding port of the cartridge is connected to the ink feeding needles at the same time, so that ink can be fed to the printing apparatus.
When a cartridge is erroneously attached to another holder, therefore, the ink protection film adhered to the ink feeding port has already been broken, making the viscosity of the ink higher. Therefore, removing a cartridge and retaining it for later use causes printing problems.
The present invention has been devised in view of the situation described above and its primary objective is to provide an ink cartridge capable of preventing the wrong ink from being fed to a printing apparatus. In this case, the invention provides an ink cartridge capable of determining the propriety of the installation of the ink cartridge without breaking the ink protection film that seals the ink feeding port of the ink cartridge.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide an ink cartridge and ink-jet type printing apparatus, that recognizes the installation of a wrong ink cartridge and prevents the erroneous installation by using an ink cartridge that has a storage medium capable of storing information about the cartridge before the ink feeding needles of the printing apparatus break the ink protection film of the cartridge.
It is a further objective of the invention to provide an ink-jet type printing apparatus and an ink cartridge change control method in the apparatus that automatically perform ink discharge and ink change, when an ink cartridge of a different characteristic is selected.
An ink cartridge according to a first aspect of the present invention has a storage medium for holding information about the ink cartridge, and the ink cartridge is moved to a second position where ink can be supplied to a printing apparatus through a first position before installation at the time it is installed in the printing apparatus. With at least the ink cartridge inserted at the first position, the information in the storage medium provided in the cartridge is transmitted to the printing apparatus to determine the propriety of installation of the ink cartridge.
This structure of the ink cartridge makes it possible to recognize the installation of an incorrect ink cartridge before the ink feeding needles of the printing apparatus break the ink protection film of the cartridge. This prevents erroneous installation of an ink cartridge.
An ink-jet type printing apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention uses the aforementioned ink cartridge and has a cartridge holder in which the ink cartridge is inserted for attachment and ink intake means for receiving ink into the cartridge when coupled to the cartridge with the cartridge attached to the cartridge holder. The ink-jet type printing apparatus includes readout means for reading the information about the ink cartridge from the storage medium by accessing the storage medium of the ink cartridge when the cartridge is at a first position before attachment of the ink intake means to the ink cartridge and propriety determining means for determining whether or not the ink cartridge is appropriate by referring to the read cartridge information, and the apparatus informs a user of the result of that determination.
The printing apparatus with this structure checks the propriety of the installation of the cartridge to the printing apparatus when the cartridge is at the first position, which is located before the position where the ink intake means of the printing apparatus is to be attached to the ink cartridge. This makes it possible to prevent the improper installation of the ink cartridge before the ink is fed into the printing apparatus.
An ink-jet type printing apparatus according to the second aspect of the invention is constructed such that an ink cartridge having a storage medium capable of storing information about the cartridge is installable in a detachable manner. It includes readout means for reading the information from the storage medium in the installed ink cartridge, information analysis means for analyzing the information about the cartridge read by the readout means and ink intake means driven by a control signal generated by the information analysis means to let ink out when connected to the ink cartridge.
The printing apparatus with this structure reads information from the storage medium of the installed ink cartridge and checks the propriety of the installation of the cartridge. When it is determined that the installed ink cartridge is appropriate, the ink intake means is driven to be connected to the ink cartridge so that the ink is led out. Even if an improper cartridge is installed, therefore, the ink intake means is not driven, making it possible to prevent the ink from being fed into the printing apparatus from the improper cartridge.
An ink cartridge change control method in the ink-jet type printing apparatus according to the second aspect of the invention sequentially executes an information readout step of reading the cartridge information from the storage medium in the installed ink cartridge; a cartridge information analysis step of analyzing the cartridge information read in the information readout step; and an ink-intake-means drive step of driving ink intake means for taking ink out from the ink cartridge upon reception of a control signal generated as a result of analysis in the cartridge information analysis step.
In this case, an ink drawing/discharging step of drawing and discharging ink from the printing head by applying negative pressure to capping means is executed based on the result of analysis in the cartridge information analysis step, and the ink-intake-means drive step is executed after the ink drawing/discharging step.
The use of such change steps permits the ink to be changed without mixing inks in the printing apparatus and ensures selective use of various kinds of inks in accordance with the diversification of inks.